Million Mask March Locations 2015: Anonymous Members To Wear Guy Fawkes Masks During Global Protests Against Mass Surveillance

Protesters gather in Trafalgar Square, London, ahead of last year's Million Mask March, Nov. 5, 2014. People with faces covered will march in cities all over the world Thursday to protest austerity, mass surveillance and attacks on human rights. Photo: Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images

The hacktivist group Anonymous is having a big week. First, on Sunday and Monday it released personal details of alleged members of the Klu Klux Klan, which prompted several U.S. politicians whose names appeared on the list to deny any connection to the hate group. Then in a statement Sunday, Anonymous said it would be staging a “Twitter storm” to spread awareness about its operation. And finally, the group said it will release data on more than 1,000 KKK members Thursday, just in time for its annual Million Mask March.

What exactly is the Million Mask March? It is a global network of events that Anonymous has coordinated every year since 2012. The theme this year is “building a better future through collective action,” according to a statement from the online activist collective released Monday.

The group is known for uniting all manner of hackers, activists, trolls and hangers-on to protest Internet censorship, defend WikiLeaks, support the Occupy movement and stand up against whatever it considers corrupt and oppressive. Members of Anonymous often wear masks decorated as the face of Guy Fawkes, who was part of a failed Catholic conspiracy to blow up England’s Houses of Parliament and kill King James I in 1605.

Protesters hold up their Guy Fawkes masks in front of the Hungarian Parliament in Budapest, during the 2014 "Million Mask March." Photo: Reuters/Bernadett Szabo

The Guy Fawkes masks grew in popularity after the movie “V for Vendetta,” and many in the collective now wear the mask seen on the character “V” in the movie as a symbol of their fight against tyranny. Nov. 5 is the night Fawkes’ plan was foiled, and is known as Bonfire Night in the U.K., where Fawkes is burned in effigy.

The Million Mask March takes place Nov. 5 at public spaces around the world with marches beginning at 5 p.m. or “rush hour,” according to MillionMaskMarch.com. Participants will start gathering between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. in each city on the day of the march. So far, about marches are planned in 650 cities, including New York, Chicago and Washington. You can find a march near you on the Anonymous World Map, which has details about locations and times in each city.

If there is no march planned in a given city, anyone can create his own event and contact Anonymous to have their march added to the official map. Anonymous does not have any rules for its group or for the march, but it has started to provide guidance for those planning to march Thursday.

We encourage all peaceful protesters to stick together on the 5th of november and keep our younger protesters safe. #MMM2015

Every year, some marches are live-streamed so those not participating can watch the events. Anonymous collected links to live streams for various cities last year, and is likely to do so again ahead of Thursday. Its website asks people organizing live streams to email those links to info@MillionMaskMarch.com.

A second statement Monday, this one uploaded to text-sharing site Pastebin, provided a more informal explanation for the Million Mask March.

“The Million Mask March is about your right to get s**t done outside of what's appropriate, or legal, or wise. The Million Mask March is about your right to remind governments to be afraid of their people, and to remind people not to be afraid of their governments,” the statement read in part.

With the added stunt of the supposed KKK exposures this week, the Million Mask March may receive more attention than in years past. Anonymous advised journalists Monday to fact-check information on their own and cautioned people to not jump to conclusions in response to its release of the KKK members, which it is calling #OpKKK.

The pastebin links sent to us regarding #OpKKK were sent to us by Anonymous individuals. The actual release for Operation KKK will be 5 Nov.